Flight Instructor · Phase 2 · Lesson 20

Navigation and cross-country flight planning

AI.II.IGround 1.0 hr · Dual 0 hr

FAA references verified 2026-08-13 · v1.0, 2026-08-13

CFI Candidate

Date

Supervising Instructor

Aircraft N41459 Warrior Ground only Flight time Ground time

Objective

The candidate teaches a student to plan a cross-country and, more importantly, to know what to do when the plan stops matching the world.

Ground: 1.0 hr | Dual: 0 hr

Lesson steps: the elements, in teaching order

Check each element as it is taught. Leave anything not done blank. Sign and date once at the bottom.

1. Route selection, and teaching a student to choose rather than to accept a magenta line AI.II.I 2. Pilotage and dead reckoning, and why they are still taught AI.II.I 3. The navigation log: what it is for, and the parts a student will actually use in flight AI.II.I 4. Fuel planning and reserves, from the airplane's own material AI.II.I91.151 5. Weather and NOTAM gathering for the route, and preflight action 91.103 6. Diversion and lost procedures, taught as a decision rather than a formula AI.II.I 7. Teaching the student's first solo cross-country: what to check before signing 61.93 8. Candidate teaches an assigned element to the Simulated Student US-4.1

Element 6 is the substance. Every student can compute a flight plan on the ground. The skill that matters is what happens 40 minutes in when the ceiling is lower than forecast, and it is taught by practising the decision rather than the arithmetic.

Element 7 matters for the candidate's first months as an instructor. 61.93 endorsements are among the first they will write, and lesson 22 drafts them.

Schedule

Block	Minutes
Route selection and pilotage, elements 1 and 2	10
The navigation log, element 3	8
Fuel planning and reserves, element 4	8
Weather, NOTAMs, and preflight action, element 5	7
Diversion and lost procedures, element 6	12
Signing a first solo cross-country, element 7	5
Candidate teaches, element 8	10
Total	60 minutes, 1.0 hours

Critique runs inside the final block.

Equipment

Instructor: current sectional. The airplane's flight manual for fuel figures. Live eCFR for 91.103, 91.151, 61.93. FAA-S-ACS-25 at AI.II.I.

Candidate: preparation deliverable, current sectional, plotter, calculator.

Capture

Taught Ground Lesson: yes Meeting title convention: CFI Ground Lesson - L20 Navigation and Cross-Country Planning - <YYYY-MM-DD> Participants: each on their own device, headset, Workspace account Candidate reads their own Session Transcript before the instructor's review Coverage maps to: AI.II.I Fallback if capture fails: instructor attests from contemporaneous notes; the lesson is not lost and is not re-taught for the sake of a recording

Instructor actions

Teach elements 1 to 5 efficiently. The candidate has planned many cross-countries.
Element 6: give a scenario in the air, not on the ground. "You are here, the ceiling ahead is lower than forecast, you have this much fuel." Make them decide, then ask what they would have taught a student to do.
Simulated Student role. A student who has planned entirely on an app and has no paper backup, and does not see the problem.
Assign the element for element 8 at the start of the lesson.
Critique against standards/CRITIQUE-STANDARD.md.

Regulation and North Aero policy

Item	Which
Preflight action required	Regulation, `91.103`
VFR fuel reserves	Regulation, `91.151`
Student solo cross-country endorsement requirements	Regulation, `61.93`
North Aero's own fuel reserve minimum	School policy, stricter than `91.151`
North Aero's requirement for a paper backup on student cross-countries	School policy

Student actions

Arrive with the deliverable.
Teach an assigned element for about ten minutes.
Make a diversion decision from a scenario, and say what they would teach.
Address the app-only student without dismissing the app.
Self-critique first.

Completion standards

Identical wording in the study guide.

The candidate teaches an assigned element for about ten minutes.
The candidate makes a diversion decision from an in-flight scenario, states the reasoning, and says what they would have a student do differently.
The candidate states fuel reserve requirements from the regulation and North Aero's own figure, and says which is which.
The candidate addresses the app-only student by naming a specific failure rather than by asserting that paper is better.
The candidate states what they must verify before endorsing a first student solo cross-country, from 61.93.
The candidate delivers a self-critique before hearing the instructor's.

Common errors

Error	Instructor response
Teaching the navigation log as an arithmetic exercise	Standard 1. Which columns get used in flight?
Teaching diversion as a formula	Standard 2. It is a decision under time pressure
Being dismissive about electronic flight planning	Standard 4. The app is not the problem; sole reliance is
Quoting a fuel burn from memory	Send them to the airplane's book. Requirement 5
Confusing the regulatory reserve with the school's	Standard 3
Not knowing `61.93` before signing anything	Standard 5, and they will need it in month one
Planning a route no student could actually follow visually	Element 1

Intervention threshold

Not applicable. Ground lesson.

Student preparation

Verbatim in the study guide.

Read:

FAA-S-ACS-25, Area of Operation II, Task I.
From live eCFR: 91.103, 91.151, 61.93.
FAA-H-8083-25C, the navigation and flight planning chapters, plus the October 2025 addendum.

Deliverable: Plan a cross-country of at least 50 nautical miles from your home field, by hand, on paper, using a current sectional. Bring the navigation log. Then mark the three points on the route where you would expect a student to get behind the airplane, and say what you would do about each.

Worked example

Needed and not yet available: a real North Aero student cross-country that required a diversion. Owner: Erick. Until supplied, the instructor supplies the element 6 scenario from experience and should keep it consistent across candidates.

Video Slots

None. This lesson teaches no maneuver.

This lesson is complete and deliverable whether or not its Video Slots are filled. It has none.

Assessment notes

Standard 2 is the assessment. Everything else on this page they can already do.

Tracker Status set by the instructor, named, dated.

Definition of done

Traces to a story. US-4.1, US-4.2
Carries ACS tasks and Part 61 references
Completion standards are observable behavior, and the standard is a taught presentation
Common errors listed
Intervention threshold: not applicable, ground lesson, reason given
Student preparation named, in the student half
FAA references verified current, 2026-08-13
Passes the design system check
Appears in the program structure and coverage matrix, hours reconciling
Both halves exist
Video Slots: none, and the lesson says so
Vocabulary matches CONTEXT.md
No em dashes, no POH performance numbers, no pricing
Regulation distinguished from school policy explicitly (US-3.4)
Carries the Epic 12 capture hooks

Debrief and sign-off

Sign once for the whole lesson. Elements left unchecked above were not taught this session.

Supervising Instructor signature / initials

Date

All CFI lessons